Every Tuesday on the Oceana High School campus in Pacifica, the Social Club meets, has lunch together and plays games. With 30 kids in the club, it is one of the largest clubs on campus. While the club’s activities sound typical, groundbreaking is the better word, for the Social Club integrates the school’s special education students — higher functioning teens with autism as well as teens with intellectual developmental disabilities — with mainstream students. It is a dream come true for Lisa Sanchez, the school’s speech and language pathologist. Though the dream is bigger yet.

“My dream is to have an integrated campus,” Sanchez said, “where special ed kids are in classes with the general ed students. This is one step closer.”

This is Sanchez’s first year working at the high school. She arrives with 14 years of experience as a speech pathologist. Immediately prior to Oceana, Sanchez worked in Santa Clara County, providing speech therapy to infants through young adults (age 22).

The kids in the Social Club play “team building” games like Pictionary and Charades.

“Some of the games are ice breakers,” Sanchez said. “To get to know each other better, there are games where students ask interview questions. Many of these special education kids have disabilities that impair them from having appropriate peer relationships. That is part of their disability. My purpose is to gear these special education kids for real life, to help them have appropriate relationships out in the real world. I am also hoping to provide these kids with a social high school experience, a normal high school experience.”

Sanchez knew from a very early age that she was going to go to college and do something to help kids and adults with disabilities.

“I was 8 when my sister Elizabeth was born with Spina bifida,” Sanchez said. “She was born paralyzed from her waist down and has intellectual disabilities. She has always been in a wheelchair.”

When Elizabeth was growing up, she was always segregated from the “regular” kids, and her sister did not understand this. Elizabeth, now 31, has a fourth grade level of comprehension.

“My sister is dependent on my mom,” Sanchez said. “And she, like most of the kids in our program, will be dependent on family members for the rest of her life. I don’t think people are aware that many of these children will not be able to live independently. I made a promise to myself early on to help integrate people with disabilities, into the world of people with abilities.” Sanchez approached Oceana’s principal Caro Pemberton with her integrated “Social Club” idea, and was touched and empowered by Pemberton’s enthusiastic response. Sanchez also asked if the general education kids could receive community service hours for participating in the Social Club. This might inspire more to sign up. That too was met with approval. (100 hours of community service are a part of the high school’s distinctive college preparatory program.)

Sanchez took her idea into the general education classrooms. She brought in tools for creating disability awareness, such as masks so students couldn’t see, to help kids understand a bit about what it is like to live with a disability. Sanchez’s hope is that for some of the general education kids, these experiences with special education kids will inspire a career.

The speech and language pathologist, who provides the games, the drinks and the pizza, says she plays the games during lunchtime too.

“One of the goals is for me to fade out of being in charge of the group, so the kids can take over,” Sanchez said.

Already the results of the Social Club are palpable. Before the Social Club, these students would not have said “hi” to each other. Now they do. They see each other at baseball games and hang out. Friendships are definitely forming. At the school’s recent winter dance, the special ed students and the mainstream students all hit the dance floor together.

“There is so much laughter during our Social Club games,” Sanchez said. “Knowing these kids, and how involved in themselves they are — it is almost tearful to see how they interact.”

“These kids have miraculous memories,” Sanchez went on to say. “They will remember a name and a date, and they remember these interactions and they will talk about them. They look forward to them every Tuesday.”

In addition, the general education students stop Sanchez on campus, to tell her how much they are enjoying their Tuesday luncheons. Meanwhile, another step in Sanchez’s goal for integration just began. On Fridays, special ed students are attending general ed advisory.

“It is my honest thought that general education students get more out of this than the special education students,” Sanchez said, “because their whole life changes. Many of them have never been around anyone with a disability.”

Sanchez said she is grateful to Oceana for being so open to her ideas. As to her special education students, she is forever touched by them.

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